GECCO is an international collaboration that focuses on the identification and characterization of genetic risk factors and gene-environment interactions for colorectal cancer (CRC). Furthermore, we are investigating the impact of germline genetic, environmental and lifestyle risk factors on the tumor genome, microbiome and immune response and the impact on survival. For the translation of our findings into public health practice and clinical care, we are developing comprehensive risk prediction models for personalized screening decisions and evaluating these models in the population.

The GECCO coordinating center manages individual level genetic and epidemiological data of over 130,000 participants from 70 studies from North America, Australia, Asia, and Europe. To date, we have harmonized over 100 lifestyle, environmental, and clinical variables across the studies. Germline genetic array-based data are available for all individuals (whole genome sequencing data are available for a subset) and targeted sequencing data are currently generated for over 5,000 colorectal cancer cases using tumor and paired normal DNA.